No banks have failed during 2018 by Tim McTaggart

For Bank CEOs and senior management,

A recent FDIC headline proclaimed that no banks failed during 2018.  On the one hand that gives a sigh of relief for the economy not to look over its proverbial shoulder to see if there are financial services weaknesses during this volatile time in the stock market, world trade markets and global matters.

However, it is also a time for banks to redouble their efforts to address any and all matters requiring attention from examination processes, to engage with customers and employees to see if there are any negative signals about industry trends or local market conditions as well as to consider all appropriate "corporate governance" housekeeping to assure continuity of institutional knowledge but to avoid stagnation or concerns of "capture" of outside auditors, vendors or other service providers.

It is a new year and a new start is always in order for bank leadership to do an assessment led by a neutral party (counsel/consultant) of their own competitive position, regulatory conditions and perhaps step back a bit and look at longer term strategic issues including possible market expansion, management succession planning, and IT capability/capacity in the medium/longer term.

Tim McTaggart

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McTaggart is the former Bank Commissioner for the State of Delaware and practices financial services law in Washington, D.C.  He has counseled bank boards, independent directors, lead directors, bank audit committees, special committees, risk management committees, among others.